The Vancouver Canadians were hammered 10-3 by the Eugene Emeralds at Nat Bailey Stadium Thursday.
The Emeralds broke through against C’s starter Chad Dallas in the third inning. Damon Dues walked with one out and stole second with two outs. Hayden Cantrelle also walked before Hunter Bishop singled to center field drive in Dues.
Eugene would pile on in the fifth when Jimmy Glowenke homered to left field to score a one-out double by Luis Toribio to left. Grant McCray doubled home a Max Wright walk and a Dues infield single to third to make it 5-0 for the visitors. Garrett Farmer relieved Dallas but McCray stole third before Cantrelle walked and stole second. C’s second baseman Miguel Hiraldo tried to cut down McCray at the plate after a Bishop grounder to second but the throw was off-target and McCray scored to make it 6-0 Em’s.
The Emeralds continued their assault in the sixth when Glowenke walked with one out and went to second on a Farmer wild pitch. Dues lined a single to left to plate Glowenke to give Eugene a 7-0 advantage. McCray then walked on a 3-2 pitch and that created some fireworks as Farmer and C’s manager Brent Lavallee were both ejected by home plate umpire Matt Blackborow for arguing balls and strikes. Mason Fluharty entered the game but walked Cantrelle to load the bases before issuing another walk on four pitches to Bishop that scored Dues for Eugene’s eighth run.
Glowenke went deep to left-center field with two outs in the sixth off Fluharty to increase the Emeralds advantage by nine.
Run number 10 for the Emeralds came in the top of the seventh when Dues drew a leadoff walk from T.J. Brock. Dues stole second after McCray struck out and went to third on a Cantrelle single up the middle. A two-out wild pitch allowed Dues to score.
The Canadians finally scored in the eighth inning. Garrett Spain doubled to center and Glenn Santiago drew a walk to open the frame agianst Hunter Dula. Santiago was forced out on a 1-6 fielder’s choice by Anthony Morales. With Spain at third, he broke for home when a pitch got away from Thomas but Thomas tossed the ball to Dula covering the plate and Spain was tagged out at home. Dasan Brown and Damiano Palmegiani kept the inning going by hearing ball four before P.K. Morris was given another free pass to score Morales with the C’s first run. Tyler Myrick replaced Dula on the bump and surrendered a Rainer Nuñez single to right to score Brown.
Vancouver scored one more in the ninth when Michael Turconi drew a walk and came around to score on a Spain single and error by McCray in center field as McCray overran the ball.
C-Notes
The Emeralds were turned away by Dallas in the first inning after McCray laid down a bunt single to second on the first pitch of the game. McCray swiped second before Cantrelle drew a walk but Bishop grounded into a 6-4-3 double play and Dupere grounded out to second.
The second inning saw Dallas strike out the side by getting Thomas looking and Toribio and Glowenke swinging.
Watson had the best pitching line of the night for the C’s as he stranded two inherited runners from Brock who walked Toribio and gave up a Glowenke base hit to left with one out in the eight. Wrightt and Dues went down swinging to end the eight and McCray and Cantrelle also whiffed to begin the ninth before an inning-ending pop out to short by Bishop.
The pitching line for Dallas was 3-1/3 innings of six-run ball on six hits while putting up a walk/strikeout total of four apiece. Farmer allowed a Dallas runner to score and gave up two runs on a hit and three walks in 1-1/3 innings. Fluharty stranded one of two Farmer runners and gave up a solo homer while walking two among 1-1/3 innings of relief. Brock allowed a run on two hits and two walks but struck out three of the four men he retired. Watson struck out four of the five batters he faced.
Hiraldo was the first player to reach base for Vancouver after a one-out walk in the second by Brent Standlee. Turconi made it to first when Max Wright tried to start a double play at first but his throw was off the mark at second and that allowed Hiraldo to take third. Turconi was caught stealing second by Thomas before Spain flied out to right.
Hiraldo had the C’s first hit as he tripled into the right-center field gap off Abel Adames to start the fifth. Glenn Santiago drew a two-out walk but Turconi and Spain struck out swinging before that and Morales flied out to left to leave Hiraldo 90 feet away.
Adames retired the side in order in the sixth and Mat Olsen did likewise in the seventh before the C’s broke through in the eighth against Dula.
Spain had a double and a single to supply half of the Vancouver hit total. Hiraldo tripled and walked and Nuñez had the other base knock. Santiago walked twice while Brown, Palmegiani, Morris and Turconi took four pitches off the plate once. Vancouver was a woeful 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and seven men were stranded.
The C’s are 67-59 overall and 37-26 in the second half. They look to get back on track with Trenton Wallace on the bump for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch. Nick Zwack will pitch for the Emeralds. Tyler Zickel will have the call on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
The second-year voice of the C’s summed up Thursday’s game perfectly when he said, “Where’s the remote? I’m trying to change the channel!” during the seventh inning.
Radar Gun Rundown
Dallas had strikeouts of 88, 93, 82 and 80 and touched 97 miles per hour. Farmer was around 75-93. Fluharty was at 78 and had Ks of 87, 89 and 79. Brock struck out batters at 88, 89 and 89 and was up to 98. Watson registered whiffs of 95, 95, 95 and 99.
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